Scarmoochie

When I finally saw Scarface in its entirety, I have to admit I felt a little let down. It was sooooooo over the top, but what else would you expect from Oliver Stone, who wrote the screenplay.

Sooooooo...it should be no surprise in another life-imitating-art moment that Anthony "Tony Montana" Scarmoochie would exhibit the same over the top flamboyance and pissantry, coming into his new position as Comms Director with a blaze of vulgar profanity-laced tirades. People refer to him as Trump's mini-me but I think that's giving Dr. Evil's alter-ego a bad name. By the third installment of the Austin Powers series I actually found the little fellow to be kind of sympathetic.

Not so with the Mooch, and don't blame it on his Noo Yawuh roots. Not all New Yorkers are such unrepentant, insufferable jerks. No, this is another deeply flawed individual who's looking to cash in working for an epically flawed president. At some point he'll be hung out to dry, too, in the dysfunctional merry-go-round that is the Trump "maladministration." And when that happens, I'll be the first to wave and say, "Say good-bye to my little friend!"

Three Alarm Fire

While his "agenda" was going up in smoke last week with the health care bill debacle, the Donald decided it was the right time to play fireman, something about promoting products that were "made in America." Let's leave aside the facile notion that in the current globalized, networked economy there's any significant volume of production that is built solely in one country. Let's focus instead on the rank hypocrisy of Trump and his brood trotting out this bit of red meat for their supporters when they clearly practice and benefit from overseas production/assembly/etc. of their many lines of schlock.

Oh, and lest we forget, the biggest accomplishment in trade policy this marketing "genius" pulled off was to sell off the integrity of our nation's political and governance institutions to Russia in return for receiving systematic hacking and media propaganda services during the 2016 election. If the Donald wants to blow off doing his job and play fireman instead so that he can ride on a firetruck put out fires he might start with dousing his own trousers, which he manages to light on fire every time he opens his...whichever orifice...to unleash another pants-on-fire barrage of bunk.

The Whopper

What I really appreciate about the Trump regime is its bottomless capacity to debase itself and the nation and people it purportedly serves, which would be...us. There are no lies too large or outrageous to heap on top of the already unwieldy pile of prevarication and deception. These folks really have no shame. I really do believe that they always knew that at some point the gig would be up. They're just waiting, daring us all really, to try to stop them.

Meanwhile, they'll abuse the office of the presidency and the executive branch for as long as the spineless, amoral Republican party sees it to be in their interest to let them do so. I guess that means that there will be no shortage of opportunities for me and my fellow cartoonists. That's the good news. The bad news is the heavy social cost this deadly charade of "governing" is exacting on our society and our institutions.

I hear so many people ask (rhetorically, I can only assume), "How can these people live with themselves?" I imagine the answer is very simple: soundly. Easy to do when they lack any sort of moral compass or if they do, it's been warped to point due south, straight down the crapper. Kind of like crap sandwich...like the Whopper! Hmmmmm...fast food...

Under Trumpcare, You're Covered...In 6 Feet of Dirt

With July 4th break over and nothing else better to do during the DC summer's hot, muggy days those wacky Republicans and the Donald are at it again, trying to destroy the nation's health care system. Like they say, if at first you don't succeed, lie, lie and lie again. Raul Labrador, a Republican member of Congress from Idaho, even told his constituents that, "Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care." Yeah, that went over real well. Got to hand it to him for trying to sell the baloney, but there's only so much baloney you can force anyone to eat.

Of course, remember folks, trashing the ACA isn't really about keeping a campaign promise. It's about setting the table for another massive tax cut for the uber-wealthy. Besides, when you're predisposed to denying reality in general and scientific facts in particular (Exhibit A: see climate change; Exhibit B: evolution), you eventually convince yourself of the lies you regularly tell others. At some point you really are dwelling in a parallel universe with alternative facts. I just hope they have good cable and flush toilets there.

Alaska Cream Pie - Trump's Special Recipe

Well, it's official. North Korea can now reach us with one of it's newly tested intercontinental ballistic missiles. All it needs now is to figure out how to shrink one if its deadly nukes so that it can fit into said ICBM. So now we are back to feeling "safe," because surely the two tragically coiffed madmen who North Korea and our own country will practice...MAD, mutually assured destruction. Not exactly the stuff of a mind at ease, never a good night's rest.

So, it's back to ducking under our desks and hoping and praying that neither one of them does or says something stupid enough to piss off the other one enough so that he does the unthinkable. Oh, what I wouldn't do for a little adult supervision for the "leaders" of this world. Barring that, maybe we could lock them all up in some mile-deep vault for a really long timeout. I can always dream...